[The risk prediction value of paraquat poisoning dose, urine protein and myocardial enzymes].

Objective: To explore the value of paraquat (PQ) intake, urine protein and myocardial enzyme indexes in judging the prognosis of patients with acute PQ poisoning. Methods: From September to December 2021, all 201 patients with acute PQ poisoning admitted to Guangzhou Twelfth People's Hospital from January 2010 to December 2019 were selected as the research objects. Based on follow-up results 60 days after poisoning, the research objects were divided into survival group (n=78) and death group (n=123) . The differences in information about poisoning, treatment plan, PQ intake, urine protein, creatine kinase, creatine kinase isoenzyme, lactate dehydrogenase, and α-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase between the two groups of patients were compared and analyzed. Logistic regression and Cox regression were used to analyze the correlation between poisoning outcome and PQ intake, urine protein and myocardial enzymes. ROC curve and principal component analysis were used to explore high-efficiency indicators for predicting the outcome of acute PQ poisoning. Results: The PQ intake[50 (20, 100) ml], urine protein (total rank 15570.50) , creatine kinase[ (336.36±261.96) U/L], creatine kinase isoenzyme[ (43.91±43.74) U/L], lactate dehydrogenase [ (346.01±196.50) U/L], α-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase content[ (271.23±11.92) U/L] of patients in the death group were all higher than the survival group[15 (10, 20) ml, 4730.50, (187.78±178.06) U/L, (18.88±15.50) U/L, (190.92±60.50) U/L, (152.60±48.34) U/L, respectively] (P<0.05) . The outcome of acute PQ poisoning was positively correlated with PQ intake, urine protein, creatine kinase, creatine kinase isoenzyme, lactate dehydrogenase, and α-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase (P<0.05) . Multivariate logistic regression and multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that creatine kinase, creatine kinase isoenzyme, lactate dehydrogenase and α-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase was positively correlated with the prognosis of patients with acute PQ poisoning (P<0.05) . ROC curve analysis and principal component analysis showed that the combined indexes of PQ intake, urine protein and myocardial enzymes had the highest efficacy and weight in judging the prognosis of patients (AUC=0.91, weight coefficient=0.19, sensitivity=0.76, specificity=0.89) . When the combined score was ≥4, the probability of accurately predicting the death of patients was as high as 91% (positive predictive value=0.91) . Conclusion: PQ intake, urine protein combined with creatine kinase, creatine kinase isoenzyme, lactate dehydrogenase, and α-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase has high value in predicting the prognosis of patients with acute PQ poisoning.

[An investigation of an accident of acute mixed gas poisoning].

An accident of mixed acute gas poisoning accident happened in a place in GuangDong in March 2018. To investigates three poisoning workers and related clinical data were summarized., we tested the field air and analyzed the accident reasons. This event due to the staff lack of occupational protection awareness and illegal operation. The working environment must be ventilated before limited space operation, and must be sure that the limited space is safe by toxic gas monitoring. In case of occupational acute gas poisoning, rescuers should help the persons who are poisoned reasonably and meanwhile their own safety.

Biodegradation of kraft lignin by a newly isolated anaerobic bacterial strain, Acetoanaerobium sp. WJDL-Y2.

UNLABELLED: An anaerobic kraft lignin (KL)-degrading bacterial strain was isolated from sludge of a pulp and paper mill. It was characterized as Acetoanaerobium sp. WJDL-Y2 by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The maximum KL degradation capability of strain Y2 was determined to be 24·9% on a COD basis under an optimal condition with temperature of 31·5°C, initial pH of 6·8 and KL to nitrogen (as NH4 Cl) ratio of 6·5 by mass. Growth kinetic studies showed that the KL tolerance of strain Y2 was relatively high (Ki  = 8120·45 mg l(-1) ). Analysing KL degradation products by GC-MS revealed the formation of low-molecular-weight aromatic compounds (LMWACs), including benzene-propanoic acid, syringic acid and ferulic acid. This indicates that strain Y2 can oxidize lignin structure's p-hydroxyphenyl (H) units, guaiacyl (G) units and syringyl (S). In addition, the inoculated sample also contained low-molecular acid compounds, such as hexanoic acid, adipic acid and 2-hydroxybutyric acid, further validating strain Y2's ability to degrade KL. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: Kraft lignin containing effluents discharged from pulp and paper industries causes serious environmental pollution in developing countries. Due to the immense environmental adaptability and biochemical versatility, bacterial ligninolytic potential deserve to be studied for application in effluent treatment of pulp and paper industry. In this study, an anaerobic lignin-degrading bacterium, Acetoanaerobium sp. WJDL-Y2 (accession no. KF176997),was isolated from the sludge of a pulp and paper mill. Strain Y2 can play an important role in treating pulp and paper wastewater, as well as breaking down materials for biofuel and chemical production.

Clinical efficacy of lopinavir/ritonavir in the treatment of Coronavirus disease 2019.

OBJECTIVE: The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) which outbroke in December 2019 is highly contagious with a low cure rate. In view of this, there is an urgent need to find a more appropriate therapeutic scheme against COVID-19. The study aimed to investigate whether lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV/r) in combination with other pneumonia-associated adjuvant drugs has a better therapeutic effect on COVID-19. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Totally 47 patients with COVID-19 infection who were admitted to Rui'an People's Hospital between January 22 and January 29, 2020 were collected. The patients were divided into the test group and the control group according to whether they had been treated with LPV/r or not during hospitalization. Patients in the test group were treated with LPV/r combined with adjuvant medicine, while those in the control group were just treated with adjuvant medicine. The changes of body temperature, blood routine and blood biochemistry between the two groups were observed and compared. RESULTS: Both groups achieved good therapeutic effect with the body temperature of patients decreased gradually from admission to the 10th day of treatment. But the body temperature of patients in the test group decreased faster than that of the control group. Blood routine indexes showed that compared with the control group, the abnormal proportion of white blood cells, lymphocytes and C-reactive protein of the test group could be reduced to some extent. Blood biochemical indexes exhibited that the proportion of patients with abnormal alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase in the test group were lower than the control group. The number of days for nCoV-RNA turning negative after treatment was significantly decreased in the test group than that in the control group. CONCLUSIONS: Compared with the treatment of pneumonia-associated adjuvant drugs alone, the combination treatment with LPV/r and adjuvant drugs has a more evident therapeutic effect in lowering the body temperature and restoring normal physiological mechanisms with no evident toxic and side effects. In view of these conclusions, we suggested that the use of LPV/r combined with pneumonia-associated adjuvant drugs in the clinical treatment for patients with COVID-19 should be promoted.

Lithium chloride preconditioning optimizes skeletal myoblast functions for cellular cardiomyoplasty in vitro via glycogen synthase kinase-3beta/beta-catenin signaling.

The benefits of skeletal myoblast (SkM) transplantation for cardiomyoplasty are limited due to their decreased functional integration with host cardiomyocytes and the poor survival of implanted cells in ischemic hearts. However, little success has been achieved with respect to the strategies aiming to improve the efficiency of SkM transplantation. In this study, we demonstrated that LiCl-preconditioned SkMs resulted in significantly increased connexin 43 (Cx43) expression and gap-junctional communication with cardiomyocytes. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression of SkMs was significantly upregulated in response to LiCl. Furthermore, hydrogen peroxide induced SkM apoptosis and increased caspase-3 expression, whereas LiCl inhibited SkM apoptosis, resulted in the decrease of caspase-3 expression and promoted SkM proliferation. These effects of LiCl were mediated by inactivating glycogen synthase kinase-3beta (GSK-3beta), stabilizing the effector protein beta-catenin and translocating it into the nucleus of SkMs, confirming that LiCl mimics canonical Wnt signaling. These findings suggest that LiCl preconditioning may be a novel strategy to optimize SkM function for cellular cardiomyoplasty in vitro.

New insights into the heterogeneity and functional diversity of human mesenchymal stem cells.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are being tested in several biological systems and clinical settings with the aim of exploring their therapeutic potentials for a variety of diseases. MSCs are also known to be heterogeneous populations with variable functions. In the context of this multidimensional complexity, a recurrent question is what source or population of MSCs is suitable for specific clinical indications. Here, we reported that the biological features of MSCs varied with the individual donor, the tissue source, the culture condition and the subpopulations. Placental chorionic villi (CV) derived MSCs exhibited superior activities of immunomodulation and pro-angiogenesis compared to MSCs derived from bone marrow (BM), adipose and umbilical cord (UC). We identified a subpopulation of CD106(VCAM-1)+MSCs, which are present richly in placental CV, moderately in BM, and lowly in adipose and UC. The CD106+MSCs possess significantly increased immunomodutory and pro-angiogenic activities compared to CD106-MSCs. Analysis of gene expression and cytokine secretion revealed that CD106+MSCs highly expressed several immnumodulatory and pro-angiogenic cytokines. Our data offer new insights on the identification and selection of suitable source or population of MSCs for clinical applications. Further efforts should be concentrated on standardizing methods which will ultimately allow the validation of MSC products with defined biomarkers as predictive of potency in suitable pre-clinical models and clinical settings.

ATAD2 is overexpressed in gastric cancer and serves as an independent poor prognostic biomarker.

OBJECTIVE: ATPase family, AAA domain containing 2 (ATAD2) has been found overexpressed in various cancer types and correlated with malignant status and poor prognosis. However, little is known about the clinical significance of ATAD2 in gastric cancer patients. The aim of this study was to explore the clinical and prognostic significance of ATAD2 in gastric cancer. METHODS: The mRNA and protein levels expression of ATAD2 were detected in clinical tissue samples by qRT-PCR and immunohistochemistry, respectively. We examined the ATAD2 protein expression by immunohistochemistry. Furthermore, we analyzed the association between ATAD2 expression and clinicopathological features including prognosis in 166 gastric cancer samples. RESULTS: In our results, ATAD2 mRNA and protein were highly expressed in gastric cancer samples. ATAD2 overexpression was correlated with advanced clinical stage, tumor depth, lymph node metastasis, and distant metastasis. According to the survival analysis, ATAD2 protein overexpression was a poor independent prognostic factor for gastric cancer patients. CONCLUSIONS: In summary, ATAD2 could serve as a prognostic biomarker for gastric cancer patients.

Wnt1-overexpressing skeletal myoblasts as an improved cell therapy for cardiac repair following myocardial infarction.

AIM: Recent findings highlight the critical role of the Wnt signaling pathway in cardiac repair and stem cell regulation. Our previous study shows that lithium chloride (LiCl) optimizes skeletal myoblast (SkM) for transplantation by mimicking the Wnt/ß-catenin signaling activities. In this study, we evaluate the therapeutic potential of SkMs genetically modified with Wnt1gene (Wnt1 SkMs) in a rat model with myocardial infarction (MI). METHODS: We harvested neonatal SkMs using Wistar rats (1-3-day old) transfected with p-EGFP-C3-Wnt1 plasmid. RT-PCR and immunofluorescence showed a higher expression of Wnt1 in the Wnt1 SkMs. We observed that Wnt1 SkMs increased connexin 43 (Cx43) expression, reduced apoptosis induced by hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and decreased caspase-3 expression via the canonical Wnt signaling pathways compared to the empty vector transfected SkMs (control SkMs). For in vivo studies, the myocardial infarction model was developed in the Wistar rats. The rats were grouped to receive 100 µL basal DMEM without cells or containing 1.5×106SkMs and Wnt1 SkMs. Histological studies revealed improved survival of SkMs, reduced cardiomyocytes apoptosis, and upregulated expression of Cx43 in Wnt1 SkMs therapy group. Echocardiography monitored four weeks after therapy showed improvement of the left ventricular function in rats treated with Wnt1SkMs compared to other groups. CONCLUSION: Transplantation of Wnt1 SkMs improves rat myocardial function and enhances anti apoptotic properties of both SkMs and cardiomyocytes and upregulation of tissue Cx43 after infarction via the canonical Wnt/ß-catenin signaling activities.

Lithium chloride regulates connexin43 in skeletal myoblasts in vitro: possible involvement in Wnt/beta-catenin signaling.

Gap junction channels composed of connexin43 (Cx43) are essential for normal myogenic differentiation and skeletal muscle regeneration. Here, the aim was to study whether lithium chloride (LiCl) could regulate Cx43 expression and gap junction channel function by mimicking the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway in primary myoblasts. Cx43 mRNA expression in myoblasts was up-regulated in response to 5 mM LiCl. The enhanced Cx43 protein expression resulting from treatment with 5 and 10 mM LiCl for 24 h increased gap-junctional coupling in myoblasts. However, no obvious changes were observed with 20 mM LiCl. Furthermore, chronic treatment with 10 mM LiCl decreased Cx43 protein expression compared with untreated cells. The authors showed that LiCl mimicked the active canonical Wnt/beta-catenin signaling by glycogen synthase kinase-3beta (GSK-3beta) inactivation and accumulation of the effector protein beta-catenin into the nucleus. These results suggest that LiCl regulates Cx43 expression in skeletal myoblasts in vitro partly by a Wnt/beta-catenin-dependent pathway.